Back in the lake

Well I had completed my first open water swim, well if you could call it a swim on the Saturday. It didn’t go to plan and later that day whilst feeling extremely disappointed with myself I received a wonderful message from my swim teacher Heather from Amanzi Open Water. She said that her friend had all the thermal accessories and would be picking me up the following day at 8.10am with her friend and I will be swimming at Denham. Receiving such wonderful encouragement and kindness for someone to go out of their way to help me, left me blown away. There was no way I could refuse or back out. I didn’t sleep very well as all I could think of was how would I manage to swim in a lake the following day?
We arrived at Denham, which was a beautiful lake surrounded by trees. This time I used my friends’ wetsuit which was thermal and wore thermal swimming gloves, boots and hat, oh and a thermal vest under the wetsuit. We had quite a laugh whilst I layered up.

When I entered the lake, I could immediately feel the difference. I was not as cold as the day before. The water still took my breathe away. I needed to put my face in the water and was wondering why on earth am I doing this? Eventually I manage it and try a bit of breast stroke. Whoop, whoop, this is better than the previous day. I actually managed some front crawl too. My breathing was fast and it was difficult to relax and get into any type of rhythm, however we were in a stunning lake with the sun shinning and I was swimming a new style of breast stroke, front crawl, tread water and repeat. I really am doing this. I still have no idea how others can relax and just swim, or swim for any great distance, but for now I am very happy with my progress.

A poolside guide

Joining the Neoprene Gang

About

The contributors to this blog are six inspiring women who will be taking part in their first Open Water Swim Event in July this year. They all have a different motivation, yet they have the single aim of swimming a mile in the Thames on July 15th 2018 at The Henley Mile. These Girls Can.